Austin Nola's ninth-inning triple caps Suns' comeback

Suns left fielder Alfredo Silverio reaches and punches a pitch from the Barons' Chris Beck over the first baseman, allowing Austin Barnes to score in the first inning at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville on Friday night.

Jacksonville Suns Information

This time, the Suns accomplished what they came close to doing the night before.

Jacksonville pushed across two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning on Austin Nola’s triple down the right-field line for a come-from-behind 5-4 win Friday night over the Birmingham Barons in front of 8,013 at the Baseball Grounds.

The night before, Jacksonville (37-35 overall, 1-1 second half) scored four times in the bottom of the ninth to tie the Barons at 11-all. But the Suns left the potential winning run on base, and Birmingham won it in the 10th.

In Friday’s game, the Suns’ rally didn’t pick up momentum until there were two outs. Danny Black singled with one out, but Isaac Galloway followed with a strikeout. Brent Keys then set the stage for Nola when he drew a walk.

Nola went with an outside pitch and lined it over the first-base bag just inside the foul line. The ball hit the Barons’ bullpen bench and stopped, forcing right fielder Josh Richmond to make a long run to retrieve the ball. By the time he threw it home, Keys was across the plate with the winning run.

“You can second-guess yourself as a manager that maybe I should have done this or done that,” Suns manager Andy Barkett said. “But at the end of the day, when your team battles back and keeps playing hard for 27 outs every night, it just makes you proud of the job they’re doing. If you can fight hard for 27 outs, anything can happen. That’s the beautiful thing about baseball.”

Both teams scored three runs in the first inning before pitchers took over and posted six consecutive scoreless innings. But in the top of the eighth, the Barons bunched together three consecutive singles and a bases-loaded walk to push across a run off reliever Matt Montgomery.

The first-inning fireworks took a total of 40 minutes as the Barons sent seven men to the plate and the Suns batted through the starting lineup. Jacksonville had five singles and a walk in the inning to score its three runs. Alex Burg and Alfredo Silverio had RBI hits, and Brady Shoemaker added a sacrifice fly to account for the Suns’ runs.

The teams meet in the third game of the series at 7:05 p.m. Saturday with left-hander Justin Nicolino (6-2, 3.38) starting for the Suns against right-hander Myles Jaye (0-6, 6.32).